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Copenhagen and Malmo

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At the end of this month I'll be spending three days in Denmark and Sweden, with Copenhagen being my base. I'll probably spend two days in Copenhagen, and one in Malmo over in Sweden.

While I'm there I'd love to sample some authentic Danish and Swedish food, but to do so on a budget as this is an end-of-year trip, and I know Scandinavia isn't usually known for it's friendliness to the price conscious amongst us.

I've read through the thread on Copenhagen, but it seems to talk much more about high end places (Michelin stars make me run a proverbial mile) and isn't restricted to Danish cuisine (although I did note the recommendations for smørrebrød), so I thought I'd start a new thread seeing how I'm looking for something quite different.

Price wise, I'm not quite sure what to set as the ball park figure as I don't know how much to expect to need to pay, but in the Netherlands I'd be reasonably happy paying around €10 for a decent lunch, and about €20 for a good dinner. Being British though I'm used to paying slightly inflated prices!

Any suggestions for lunch and/or dinner places would be appreciated.

Many thanks in anticipation!

Jack.

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I know this is horribly vague, and I can't give any recommendations, but I spent about five days in Malmo and one day in Copenhagen a few years back, and was on a tight budget too. I don't remember it being terribly expensive, and I'm used to fairly low German prices. It was far far cheaper than British prices.

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In Copenhagen, there are the sandwich places at lunchtime. There are two famous ones I can th ink of, one is a woman's name I can't remember and have never been. The other, smaller, I have been to. It is Slotskaelden hos Gitte Kik, 4 Fortunstraede, 1065 Copenhagen K; (45-33) 111-537. Closed Sunday, Monday and holidays; lunch only. You need to reserve. Also nice in Copenhagen is the restaurant in the Workers Museum, very traditional, to the point that I was sorry I didn't speak Danish. Many restaurants in NyHavn have lunch buffets, and there are lots of interesting parts of the city that undoubtedly will have the sort of place you want. I wish I could be more specific.

Likewise, I wish I could remember the nice place in Malmo we were taken. We had herring and potatoes, all very real. It was like a pub. No use to you, except to assure you the sort of place you want is there somewhere.

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Thanks for the replies, it's good to know that I'm not looking for the impossible and that my wallet might take me further than I originally thought!

I'm curious as to the sound of the place in the Workers' Museum. Did you wish you spoke Danish because everything was in Danish? Or because of the atmosphere etc? It sounds like a really interesting place.

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Personally I thought the hot-dogs were an excellent lunch on the run! My impression (as a tourist) was that whilst the absolute cost is not cheap, the standard of food was generally very good, and higher than I would find in the UK.

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Thanks for the replies, it's good to know that I'm not looking for the impossible and that my wallet might take me further than I originally thought!

I'm curious as to the sound of the place in the Workers' Museum. Did you wish you spoke Danish because everything was in Danish? Or because of the atmosphere etc? It sounds like a really interesting place.

The reason I wished I spoke Danish in the Workers Museum restaurant was to talk to the staff, who spoke very little English. I recall understanding the menu, so it must have been in English or at least easy. But understanding the dishes is one thing and constructing a meal is another. I think we probably would have ordered more stuff if we'd been able to have a dialogue. The atmosphere was nice and traditional, to my untutored eye, but I'd have been happy enough if they had spoken English to the standard one gets used to in Scandinavia. For all I know the regular person was off that day.

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Well, what do you know? I'm also going to be in Copenhagen and Malmo at the end of the month. And I was just looking around for places to eat in Malmo, and was wondering if there are any Swedish speakers around here who could help me out with this menu. Am I dreaming, or does it look like all the "famous burgers" on the list are vegetarian?! I know it's crazy, but with my limited (i.e. nonexistant) knowledge of Swedish, "notfarsburgare" seems like it should be some kind of nutburger?!

(Okay, before anyone judges me for frequenting American restaurants in Sweden, you should know that I'm not American, that I live in France where American food is as exotic as it gets, and also that I am indeed planning to sample as many Swedish and Danish delicacies as my vegetarianism will permit, and in fact if anyone can give me any tips on how/where to do that I will be most grateful for those as well!)

I must say I never thought my first post on this board would be on something as ridiculous as this, but you know how it is... the food obsession... it just takes over sometimes...

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Well, what do you know? I'm also going to be in Copenhagen and Malmo at the end of the month. And I was just looking around for places to eat in Malmo, and was wondering if there are any Swedish speakers around here who could help me out with this menu. Am I dreaming, or does it look like all the "famous burgers" on the list are vegetarian?! I know it's crazy, but with my limited (i.e. nonexistant) knowledge of Swedish, "notfarsburgare" seems like it should be some kind of nutburger?!

My swedish is of the "squint and think in funny german" variety, but I am pretty sure the paragraph at the top of the burger section says all burgers are "vegetariska" mince made from quorn.

Oddly, it also says they are seasoned with smoked bacon for juiciness.

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this menu. Am I dreaming, or does it look like all the "famous burgers" on the list are vegetarian?! I know it's crazy, but with my limited (i.e. nonexistant) knowledge of Swedish, "notfarsburgare" seems like it should be some kind of nutburger?!

My swedish is of the "squint and think in funny german" variety, but I am pretty sure the paragraph at the top of the burger section says all burgers are "vegetariska" mince made from quorn.

Oddly, it also says they are seasoned with smoked bacon for juiciness.

I think a nötfarburgar is a regular ground beef burger. (Nöt is something about cattle.) I believe the first line under "famous burgers" is that any of them can be ordered as a vegetarian burger made, as Behemoth said, of grain (corn, quorn, I like the q and might just start spelling it that way all the time). And I assume they leave the bacon off the veggie burgers....

I've had people recommend Den Gronne Kaelder, Pilestræde 48 for vegetarian, but I've never been there. Spiseloppen and cafes inside Christiania have vegetarian dishes and nothing says authentic Copenhagen like Christiania.

For authentic, inexpensive danish food, it might be best to have a picnic with take-out smørrebrød from a butcher or from a take-out place like Centrum Smørrebrød, Vesterbrogade 6. This time of year everyone is outdoors as much as possible along Langlinie or Amelienborg, or take the train north to the Louisiana Museum, which has a terrific outdoor sculpture park or south to Arken Museum, which is right on Ishøj strand (beach). Danes, as YKL said, eat a lot of pølser hot dogs from the street stands. For a real scandinavian experience, buy salty licorice from a kiosk or candy store. Blue Jeans is the gateway licorice; Super Piratos and Tyrkisk Peber are the hard stuff. If you like baked goodies, Reinh van Hauen has good bread and what I think are fairly traditional pastries. The Carlsberg brewery tour ends with free samples and is near Frederiksberg Have, a large public park with cafes/bars and take-out places along its perimeter, especially Smallegade and Vesterbrogade. Nørrebro Bryghus is a hot new brew pub, recommended for beer and for food, although it might be a bit expensive (pris fixe menu of 3 dishes for $60) but they have bar food for about $8-15 per plate. Other than that, the actual danes I know like to go out for sushi and french and thai and american burgers, so I guess that's the new authentic experience!

Have fun, this is the best time of year to go!

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Nötfärs mean ground beef. All the burgers are ground beef except the Dolly Parton which is a chicken filet. If you wish you can substitute the ground beef burger for a quorn burger, which makes little sense if you are ordering one of the versions with bacon. But still the place is probably no better than a Hard Rock Cafe anywhere in the world. And there is a Hard Rock in Paris I would assume so why waste a meal here. In Malmo Petri Pumpa used to be the place for vegeterians if it is still open go there, spend a lot of money, eat something unusual and eat other meals from grocery stores rather than giving your money to a phony place like this.

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Well, I am back from my trip to Denmark and Sweden. I did not end up eating at the Vinyl Bar - it has closed down! I did sample the following delicacies on my trip:

rugbrød (unleavened rye bread) - seemed no different from the kind available everywhere

kanelbulle (cinnamon rolls) - saw these everywhere in both countries and have become completely addicted to them

lingonberry jam - nice, but didn't seem all that different from any other red fruit jam

chokladboll - surprisingly different from the version I made for the Eurovision song contest last year, this was smooth and chocolatey, almost like a truffle, which is good to know because mine were more like unbaked oat cookies

filmjölk (fermented milk) - forced myself to try this on my last day there, expecting it to taste like yoghurt, but in fact it tasted more like cheese, which was a little strange with muesli

I also had a huge variety of knäckebröd (crispbread) and tunnbröd (flatbread), some of which I had seen before but I never knew there were so many different kinds. And I had my share of junk food - a packet of rye cookies with caraway seeds, a packet of cinnamon swirl crispbreads, and a bottle of some delicious apple and pear sugar-free Fanta. I wish I could find that here! I noticed a lot of pear-flavoured drinks on my trip, and have never seen anything like that anywhere else.

My husband did try some local Danish beer, called "Ol" or something like that. The innkeeper told him he could have Carlsberg or try the local beer, and when we asked what the local beer was like, he said, "like Carlsberg". I think my husband liked it. I tried to get him to stop at a pølsevogn for some traditional Danish fast food but he said, "What - you want me to eat those crappy sausages?" and went to Burger King instead.

We were surprised to see no Havarti cheese anywhere, but perhaps it has a different name in Denmark?

There definitely seemed to be less of a food/restaurant culture compared to what I'm used to in Paris and London, and even elsewhere in Europe. But maybe that's just the impression I had. There seemed to be a dearth of good restaurants and even the snacks tended to be more of the microwave pizza variety than anything particularly local or traditional (or appetising). We did stumble across what appeared to be the ethnic neighborhood of Malmo, with lots of Asian and Middle Eastern restaurants, and enticing smells wafting from every corner. There was also a large open-air market with a wide variety of very appealing fresh produce and several oriental food stores. Unfortunately I discovered this area just a couple of hours before my flight home but it's nice to know it exists.

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Well, I am back from my trip to Denmark and Sweden. I did not end up eating at the Vinyl Bar - it has closed down! I did sample the following delicacies on my trip:

rugbrød (unleavened rye bread) - seemed no different from the kind available everywhere

kanelbulle (cinnamon rolls) - saw these everywhere in both countries and have become completely addicted to them

lingonberry jam - nice, but didn't seem all that different from any other red fruit jam

chokladboll - surprisingly different from the version I made for the Eurovision song contest last year, this was smooth and chocolatey, almost like a truffle, which is good to know because mine were more like unbaked oat cookies

filmjölk (fermented milk) - forced myself to try this on my last day there, expecting it to taste like yoghurt, but in fact it tasted more like cheese, which was a little strange with muesli

I also had a huge variety of knäckebröd (crispbread) and tunnbröd (flatbread), some of which I had seen before but I never knew there were so many different kinds. And I had my share of junk food - a packet of rye cookies with caraway seeds, a packet of cinnamon swirl crispbreads, and a bottle of some delicious apple and pear sugar-free Fanta. I wish I could find that here! I noticed a lot of pear-flavoured drinks on my trip, and have never seen anything like that anywhere else.

My husband did try some local Danish beer, called "Ol" or something like that. The innkeeper told him he could have Carlsberg or try the local beer, and when we asked what the local beer was like, he said, "like Carlsberg". I think my husband liked it. I tried to get him to stop at a pølsevogn for some traditional Danish fast food but he said, "What - you want me to eat those crappy sausages?" and went to Burger King instead.

We were surprised to see no Havarti cheese anywhere, but perhaps it has a different name in Denmark?

There definitely seemed to be less of a food/restaurant culture compared to what I'm used to in Paris and London, and even elsewhere in Europe. But maybe that's just the impression I had. There seemed to be a dearth of good restaurants and even the snacks tended to be more of the microwave pizza variety than anything particularly local or traditional (or appetising). We did stumble across what appeared to be the ethnic neighborhood of Malmo, with lots of Asian and Middle Eastern restaurants, and enticing smells wafting from every corner. There was also a large open-air market with a wide variety of very appealing fresh produce and several oriental food stores. Unfortunately I discovered this area just a couple of hours before my flight home but it's nice to know it exists.

Oooh, rugbrød! It's not available everywhere because here in Seattle, there's just one bakery that makes The Real Thing. I'm jealous! Also about the little cinnamon rolls.

I wonder what brand the Ol was, because øl is just the word for beer. But you're right, most of them are like Carlsberg. I don't know why Denmark is known for exporting havarti, but I think the generic cheese in the grocery stores is kind of like it, but it is just called "cutting cheese" (doesn't mean the same thing there, I guess) or danish cheese, and in the cheese shops, they seem to just call it "old and "really old", depending on strength.

Now I'm curious about the filmjölk and can't wait to try some next time I'm in the region.

Tak for the report!

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We did stumble across what appeared to be the ethnic neighborhood of Malmo, with lots of Asian and Middle Eastern restaurants, and enticing smells wafting from every corner. There was also a large open-air market with a wide variety of very appealing fresh produce and several oriental food stores. Unfortunately I discovered this area just a couple of hours before my flight home but it's nice to know it exists.

That area is pretty cool, it's called "Möllevången" (the Mill Common-land) nicknamed "Möllan" (The Mill). Probably foodwise one of the most interesting part of Malmö, and the most non-swedish neighbourhood in all of Sweden. It has even a few good Swedish traditional restaurants around, but mostly it's middle eastern. It's also one of the hippie capitals of Sweden, so vegetarian food is abundant.

But I wouldn't go to Malmö if I want to eat great cheap authentic Swedish food in the area, I would go to the country side where there's lots of small country restaurants serving that kind of fare.

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I am fluffing this thread in hopes of an update from some kind people - we are going to be in Copenhagen/Malmo for 4 days shortly, staying in Vendersgade near Rosenborg Palace.

Like the original poster we are after delicious authentic local food, in simple good value places. Our hotel seems to do good breakfasts, but we will be happy to pop out for brunch if there are any worthwhile places. We will have just a simple lunch (sandwich or salad), so I am looking for recommendations for that, and for good places for dinner. There seem to be some great high-end places, but what about the good value places that you go to more every day?

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I am fluffing this thread in hopes of an update from some kind people - we are going to be in Copenhagen/Malmo for 4 days shortly, staying in Vendersgade near Rosenborg Palace.

Like the original poster we are after delicious authentic local food, in simple good value places. Our hotel seems to do good breakfasts, but we will be happy to pop out for brunch if there are any worthwhile places. We will have just a simple lunch (sandwich or salad), so I am looking for recommendations for that, and for good places for dinner. There seem to be some great high-end places, but what about the good value places that you go to more every day?

I'm hoping Mette or one of the others who actually live in Copenhagen can come up with something specific (I'm writing from Jutland, but I visit Copenhagen fairly often, and inevitably end up trying to find somthing tasty and reasonable to eat); all I can say is that your best bet is to find some friendly member of the hotel staff who has a legitimate appreciation of food, and ask for recommendations for places they'd grab lunch, for example.

Keep in mind that Denmark is expensive, so 'good value' is going to run to more than it does in, say, Germany or Italy (e.g. a plain hotdog from one of those chain stands will run about DKK 25, currently USD 4.30), so you'll need to adjust the baseline cost for casual food accordingly.

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For Copenhagen, I want to mention Brewpub (which I'll review properly as soon as I have a little free time).

It's located at Vestergade 29, easy walking distance from Copenhagen's central train station and Rådhuspladsen. We ate in the restaurant, but there's overlap between the pub and restaurant menus, and there's a single kitchen, so the quality is likely the same for both.

We both had the exceptional rabbit fried with pepper bacon & liver mousse as a starter, followed by the very good ribeye (for my boyfriend) and breast & confit of duck (for me), and quite outstanding the porter-chocolate cake with carrot and sea buckthorn sorbet.

We left feeling extremely happy with the meal.

My only real complaint is with their knives: we struggled a a bit with our main courses, even though the meat was just as tender as it ought to be. I thought about requesting a steak knife, but when I looked about to see whether any other diners had something of the sort, none were in evidence, so I didn't ask.

Especially since I haven't had much luck finding places in Denmark with excellent, reasonably priced food, I'd categorize Brewpub as a something of a find.

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Well we had a great time in CPH. Thanks to a blog (http://verygoodfood.dk/eatcph/) we had superb meals at Kødbyens Fiskebar ( in a very edgy area - look for the fire outside), and at Manfreds & Vin. We also found ourselves staying near an excellent place -Torvehallerne. For anyone who knows London it's like Borough Market only with lots more places to sit and eat. Wehad reasonabley priced, excllent breakfasts there at Laura's, and a confit de canard sandwich in a baguette from the savoury side was gorgeous.

We also had brunches and some snacks at Café Norden. This is a lovely place, and a brunch literally kept me full all day - and that's without cheese. Despite loving herrings and smørebrød I didn't manage to get any - mostly due to my enormo-brunches.

I did find that Danish restaurants don't take kindly to complaints - the only poor part of the meal at Manfreds & Vin was the coffee which was thin and stewed. I mentiond it to the waiter and in UK it would not have been charged for - but Mnafreds kept it on the bill. We also ate in our hotel a couple of times for convenience (Ibsens). The first time MiniPSB had a full size pizza which he enjoyed, and it had an Italian-sized (smallish) helping of cheese on it, but it was enormous. So the second time he asked for a small one - which came loaded with cheese. We therefore asked if he could have one like the one the previous night, only small. Again in UK I am sure this slightly unreasonable request would have been met, in what was after all a fairly expensive reataurant (it was only a Margarita so the ingredients cost pennies) - but not here - three enormous men stood over my poor son who's only 13 and argued with him! In the end they did agree to redo the pizza - but then they charged the full price, so we might as well have gone for the larger one and wasted half! Heyho - everyone else was charming and we loved CPH, and had some very good food. Enormous portions too but I think the Danes must work it off cycling.